"...living longer doesn’t mean that your ability to engage in physical labor — which many Americans still do — has been correspondingly extended.
This whole discussion bears witness to the remarkable inability or unwillingness of our elite to understand what life is like for those less fortunate."

I suspect Michael Hastings will not be booked for any CNN shows for a while. Especially appreciate his remarks about the General Kimmit's opportunity to enjoy the fruits of capitalism from the war in Iraq.

Letter to the Editor about the looming Great Betrayal of the American people:

We, the Enemies?

The editorial “Debt & Taxes in DC” fails to mention proposed entitlement reforms that are being discussed in Washington right now. Cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will devastate the poor and sick in this country. For people already living on the edge of financial ruin, taking away even a small percentage of their income is a recipe for disaster. And yet that’s what both parties are discussing.

In the interests of honesty, let’s call this what it really is: The US government is imposing economic sanctions on its own citizens. As we have done to populations in Iran and other “enemy states,” a huge segment of American citizens will be unable to afford decent food, shelter, or medical care if President Obama’s Grand Bargain/Great Betrayal includes cuts to the social safety net.

So millions of people who have been paying into the system for decades will not get what was promised when they could use it most. At least now we know how the richest nation in the world treats those in need – the same way it treats its enemies.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

With one term down and one more to go, we take a look at how well the first Obama administration did on some of the issues OTM cares about most: surveillance, transparency, whistleblowers, and press access. Brooke and Bob speak with The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, the Sunlight Foundation's Lisa Rosenberg, and ABC's White House correspondent Jake Tapper about Obama's first four years, and what they expect in the next four.